


Guardian Angel

by tolumo



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Child Abuse, Fluff, M/M, kinda angsty, mild cuddling i suppose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-12 00:39:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7913647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tolumo/pseuds/tolumo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>David discovers a rather sad part of Max's life, and all he wants to do is help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Guardian Angel

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction ever so I'm sorry if it doesn't meet your standards, I only ever write my own stories.

Max felt like crying when he saw an all too familiar black car pulling up next to the camp’s main building.

All of the young and mostly energetic campers were out in the forest on a scavenger hunt lead by Gwen, while David was in the main building preparing the next activity. All, except for Max. Gwen and David had decided that just this once, they would allow Max to sit out an activity, knowing that if they brought him along, he would somehow find a way to have things go wrong. After all, as the days passed, he grew more and more persistent to sit out while the others went about the day.

Max was sitting on a bench, just outside of the wooden structure that was currently occupied by the happy camp counsellor. He sat with his hands resting in his sweater pouch, patiently waiting for the end of the day, so he could retire to his cabin and sleep. But his calm yet bored demeanor didn’t last long, due to the polished black mercedes parked in the small lot next to the cabin.

All at once, Max began to feel anxious and horrified, his heart was hammering against his chest so hard that he feared his ribcage might break. But in his mind, even that was better than what he knew was about to happen.

The car’s doors were thrown open. From the driver’s seat, out stepped a man in a grey suit, and from the passenger’s side emerged a professional looking woman with curly black hair tied back into a bun. She had black lipstick that overshadowed the remaining features of her face, and to Max, she was the most terrifying woman he had ever seen.

His mother.

David, having heard the car pull up, popped his head out from the doorway, scanning the grounds. Before he could fully step out of the building to address the woman and her husband, Max bolted to David’s side.

“Dude, get inside. Get inside now!” He urged, pushing against David’s leg without much success. David eyed him curiously.

“Max, what’s the hurry?” 

Max didn’t answer, he continued trying to shove past David, but David wasn’t budging.

“Max?” A smoothe female voice called. Max’s body visibly tensed, as he slowly shifted around to face his doom.

“Hello Miss!” David greeted, waving cheerfully. “I assume you’re Max’s mother? You two look so similar!”

She smiled sweetly, lumbering over the two of them, her husband not far behind her. “Yes.” Her mildly accented voice replied. “I am here for my son. I hear he is being bothersome. I’m so sorry on Max’s behalf.” She said, and Max realized just how good this woman was at acting.

“No, he’s not too much trouble. We’ve got him handled pretty well, I would say!”

“Hey, can you stop talking about me like I’m not here?” Max shouted up at them. Max’s mother cleared her throat and grabbed Max’s hand. 

“If you would excuse us, I would like to talk to my son for a moment.”

“Alright. I’ll be inside if you need me.” And David stepped back in, and Max was internally shouting at the jackass for leaving him like that.

Dragging Max along with her, they stopped in front of the car.

“We can’t even send you to camp for one month without complaints of your poor behaviour!” His father bellowed at him. “I’m sick and fucking tired of your attitude. You can’t get anything right!”

“We can’t leave you alone with a sitter, or even your violin teacher!” Max’s mother wailed at him. “I thought this camp would do some good for you, but apparently not.”

“Well maybe if you actually fucking loved me or showed an interest in my existence, I’d actually put an effort into doing shit!” Max screeched at them. And it wasn’t the first time.

“Don’t take that tone with me you ungrateful brat!” She screamed, surely loud enough to alert anyone nearby, and she slapped him. A big red mark appeared almost instantaneously, and it stung. 

“All we ever do is give! Do you have any idea how much money we’ve spent on raising you? On feeding you? On making sure you don’t live like a peasant? Apparently not! You’re nothing but an ungrateful, insolent child, who could never understand how much we loved you!” She jerked his hair, yelling her distorted words in Max’s ears. She hit him again.

“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have to say it. I would know.” Max muttered, barely audible, but his dad heard him, and clocked Max across the face, hitting his eye.

Max couldn’t tell whether he was crying or not, because the now ever-present rain was soaking his features, and numbing his face. Or maybe that was just the hits. He was used to them by now, but that didn’t make them hurt any less.

The smell of petrichor was emanating from the soft earth, and that was the closest thing Max could find pleasant at that moment. 

But when Max turned to look at the cabin that housed David, he felt his heart sink once he noticed that David was standing there in the doorway, petrified, a horrified expression plastered on his face.

Max knew he was crying now, because the one person who never gave up on him had just witnessed Max’s parents abusing him, and how he just stood there and took it like a bitch. Max wished he could curl up in a ball and die. He couldn’t face anyone again, not after they found out about this. He waited for David to leave, powerless against his powerful parents. But he grew confused when David did the exact opposite and padded toward them, with a somewhat confident look.

David’s feet sloshed through rapidly growing puddles on the way over, and under any other circumstance, he may have whined about his shoes being soaked. 

David grabbed Max’s arm with force, pulling Max behind him.

“Hey, you stay out of this!” His father growled.

A look of fury washed over David. “NO! I will not tolerate you treating Max this way! He is perfectly a capable child full of potential! But now I can see why Max can’t see that himself. Because he had people like YOU who treat him like garbage! Now I’d say that is a very mean thing to do.” Max wanted to facepalm at that last statement. And he would have, if it weren’t for the fact that someone was standing up for him. And that alone muddled up his mind. But it made him so happy. Genuinely happy. There’s a first time for everything, he supposes.

“I think you two should leave.” David plainly states, glaring at the couple, who slammed their car doors shut and drove off, as if they really didn’t care at all in the first place. Well, they really didn’t, and they both knew it.

David bent down so he was eye level with Max. “Your eye is getting pretty swollen.” He said solemnly. “Come on, let’s fix you up.” And when David grabbed Max’s hand and lead him inside, Max didn’t protest. 

David popped into the main building quickly and nabbed the medical supplies, before leading Max to David’s cabin. Max thought anything more than in ice pack was necessary, but he decided if it made David feel better, so be it. The counsellor hadn’t smiled once this whole time, and Max knew that was a bad sign. 

The counsellor’s cabins were much bigger and better than the tents shared between the campers, (The kid’s found it excessive that each counsellor got a whole cabin to themselves) and unlike those smaller tents, the cabins had running water. David supposed the main building did too, but Max would need some rest after he was finished, so the closer a bed was, the better.

He sat Max down on the edge of his bed, before running of to get some fresh ice. He slipped some into a ziploc bag and wrapped a paper towel around it forging a temporary ice pack.

“Here. Hold this to your eye.” Said David, gesturing to the icepack in his outstretched hand. Max nodded and took it from him.

“So, we should probably talk about th-”

“No.” Max shook his head. “I don’t want to.”

“But Max-”

“I said I don’t want to!”

David sighed, frustrated, but didn’t push it further. “Do you mind if I check your body for other injuries?” Max looked nervous.

“Yeah I mind! That’s my personal space!”

“Max, please, you were handled pretty roughly out there and I want to know if you’re hurt!”

Max looked beyond pissed now, he stood up and slammed his ice pack on the floor. “Hurt? HURT? I’ve been subjected to that bullshit for YEARS, David. How in the hell would I not be hurt?!”

Max was surely crying now, but if David was persistent he could always pass it off as water dripping from his sopping hair. Max hid his face in his hands, and his sleeves fell down his arms just slightly, and David could already see the network of fine white lines criss-crossing Max’s arms, and David’s heart broke. But he breathed a sigh of minute relief, because they all looked very old.

“I’m not okay, David. I’m defective. I deserved it.” Max stated, much softer than before. David’s eyes grew wider than he thought possible with shock and sadness. He wrapped his arms tightly around Max’s small form, sitting them both down on the bed. Max tried to struggle out of David’s grip, but David made sure not to let him go. Max hated being touched, whether it was a positive or negative gesture. And it was mostly the latter.

“Don’t you ever say that, because you know that’s not true. None of that’s true. You didn’t do anything wrong. You have to understand that everyone makes mistakes. Your parents are a prime example of that. You deserve to be treated better.”

Max stopped worming his way out of David’s grasp, knowing his attempts were pointless. And he decided that just once, just this time, he would allow himself to sob into David’s shirt.

Although it didn’t seem like it, Max was happy. Of course, he was uncomfortable and horrified to, but the feeling of being safe, having someone be there while he cried, it was enough to make him smile for a lifetime. Okay, maybe not a lifetime. Maybe a whole day, which by Max’s standards, is a long-ass time.

Once Max had no more tears left to shed though, David laid him down on the bed, and covered him in a thick white blanket. David planted a small kiss on Max’s forehead, and picked up Max’s arms,sliding down the sleeves, and pressed a kiss to both of those too.

Max felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment, the positive affection nearly too much for him.

David was about to turn on his heel and leave Max to rest for a while, but Max’s small hand reached out from under the covers and grabbed a handful of David’s shirt.

“Please don’t leave.” Max muttered, his face hidden beneath the blanket to avoid being ridiculed for the ridiculous amount of red on his face.

“I can’t stay Max, I have activities I need to run with the other campers, and I can’t leave Gwen to do it by herself.” He ruffled Max’s hair softly. “I’ll be back later though. Don’t worry, I’ll always be nearby.”

“Okay.” Max said feebly, still embarrassed about how easily he gave in to this. That wasn’t to say it made him unhappy however. He was feeling quite the opposite about the matter. 

Max felt safe enough to allow himself to sleep, knowing that nothing bad will happen, because David would protect him.

 

When Max finally awoke, it was dark out. It was the end of the day, and everyone would be retiring to their cabin’s for rest. What woke Max up was the sound of the door closing, and an accomplished looking David strolling in. Max squinted when David turned on the light, and pulled the cover over his head.

David hadn’t forgotten about the little camper, and quickly rushed off to the bathroom where he changes into a plain t-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms.

Once he emerged, he opened his mouth as if to say something, but promptly shut it, his gaze set on a spot on the floor. David walked over and picked it up, and it allowed Max to see the forgotten and melted ice pack that he had thrown on the floor. David threw it in the trash, before returning his focus to Max. He asked: “How are you feeling Max?”

“Still tired.” Max grumbled, sitting up in David’s bed. “I should go back to my cabin now, shouldn’t I?” If he didn’t go back, he would have to come up with some reason where he had been that night to his friends in the morning, but if he did, he would have to explain his black eye and slightly bruised cheek.Two situations he did not want to be in.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, Max.”

“But isn’t this, like, your only bed?”

“I don’t mind sharing. And if you’re really uncomfortable with that, I can sleep on the floor, no problem.” He grinned.

“N-no, you don’t have to sleep on the floor.” Max stuttered out. It was a bit weird, the thought of sleeping in the same bed as someone almost twice his age, but he figured, it’s not like anything weird is going to happen. Besides, hormonal teenage girls could only dream of doing this with their celebrity crush. It’s practically the same thing, Max told himself. Except he definitely did NOT have a crush on David. Definitely not. No way.

“Alrighty then!” David said cheerfully as he flicked off the light. David laid down on the edge of the bed, on top of the blankets, making sure he gave Max some space. But this time Max didn’t want space. However, he didn’t want to inch closer to David, because if David moved any farther he would fall off of the bed.

“You don’t have to sleep on the very edge, you know.” Max murmured. 

“Okay.” And David shifted closer a bit, nearly pressing against Max’s side. Unsure about what to do with his hands, he decided to just leave one by his head, and he gently placed the other on Max’s blanketed body. And even though it wasn’t much, Max appreciated the warmth that David provided, and Max decided, that it was good enough for him. 

And if Gwen walked in in the morning and saw them like that, Max didn’t care, because he knew his new guardian would keep him safe.


End file.
